Downed Malaysia Flight 17 Was Within 15 Miles Of Two Other Commercial Flights When It Disappeared

malaysia airlines mh17 — A part of the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane is seen after it crashed near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. Reuters

At least two other commercial airliners were within 15 miles of Malaysia Air Flight 17 when it lost contact with traffic controllers and crashed near the Russian border with Ukraine, according to a website that tracks global aircraft in real time.

According to flightradar24.com, Singapore Airlines SQ351, a Boeing 777, and Air India AI113, a Boeing 787, were about within 15 miles of the #Malaysia Air flight when the 777 disappeared and crashed after presumably being shot down.

According to the Associated Press, an adviser in Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, Anton Gerashenko, posted on Facebook that the plane was flying at about 33,000 feet and was hit by a missile fired from a Russian-built Buk launcher. A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.

At presstime the organization's Webpage was experiencing heavy traffic and was not available, however its Twitter account earlier posted an image of a map showing all three flights in close proximity to each other.